February 29, 2008

1. Violet really loves water.  She hops in the tube after I shower.  She runs to the bathroom whenever anyone goes in.  She always gets into the sink and tries to catch water drops.  As a kitten she fell into the toilet.  Twice.  So it is no surprise when I go ahead and run the water, even when she is in the sink, that one day her nimble feet would slip, and she would end up under the running water.  Hilarity and jumping wet cat ensued.
2. I love these cats. 
3. I am so glad the week is over.  it just seemed very stressful.  The weekend is a little to busy for my taste, but not with the same frustrations.  We have been doing a nutrition unit for english, science and geography, and I was happy to get on board, and the kids food maps were fun, but I have lost two weeks, and the rhythm is gone.  The same thing happened last year.  We had an activity, project, test pattern established and about this time of year I lost the flow.  I think that is probably because I spend more time planning for the first of the year.  Also there are less interruptions in the beginning of the year.  I want to plan more time to plan this summer.  I always say that, maybe I will do it this year.
4. Everytime I see an advertisement for House, they always say it is the most bizarre case yet.  How can that be?
5. The staff progressive dinner is tomorrow night.  I am on for an entree.  Couscous and veggies?  Bucket of Chicken?  Donut Holes?  Whatever shall I bring?

February 27, 2008

1. The simple supper done by the “yutes” on Monday went very well.  I love church kids, because they generally do what I ask, and come running back for more.  Awesome!
2. Paul and I babysat for his nephew and niece last night and this was very fun.  We played Monopoly Junior and read books.  The little one all of the sudden had a minor meltdown because he realized he missed his mommy, but he would come and clutch on me as he was crying, so it was nice that he didn’t hold us to blame.
3. Got my info for the Breast Cancer 3 Day.  The training program goes for 24 weeks, which would mean I need to bust out the walking shoes on April 28th.  I guess I could just start some random walking right away.
4. I feel trapped in my pants today.  That sounds bad.  I just mean that these pants are a touch tight, and have very little give.  I am already looking forward to getting home and taking them off.  Still sounds bad.
5. I give Kevin and Violet a treat before I leave in the morning, and lately Violet goes and sits in an empty cardboard box by the door when that time comes around.  Kevin has not been feeling good lately, and has had to have some Valium to help with his, ahem, bladder issues.  Dude gets a little tense sometimes, that’s all.

February 25, 2008

1. My first class is fairly difficult and makes me unhappy.  It doesn’t happen very often, but when you have a group or kid that makes you want to not get out of bed in the morning, it can be very demoralizing.
2. This week is a nutty one with stuff every afternoon and every night.
3. I am having a hard time keeping it together today.  I want to run away.
4. I need a low fat sugar free Caramel Frappacino. Stat!
5. Whimper. (I’m going under my desk now.)
6. If you are like me and need a laugh, try this. Thanks to EJ.

February 22, 2008

1. Yes there was a snow day and yes it was fabulous.  There was no snow, only a little ice, but who are we to toy with the safety of our dear children!  It had to be done! 
2. I had coffee and read the paper, cleaned my sitting room, recorded a song, walked to get some Chinese food, ate same, but not to excess, read a little, watched my tape of survivor and lost, knit some, saw Tootsie over streaming video on Netflix and closed the day watching a movie with Paul.  Excellent day!
3. The movie Paul and I saw was “One Two Three” with James Cagney.  He is a Coca Cola exec trying to bring behind the Iron Curtain.  His boss’s rascally daughter comes to Berlin and falls in love with a communist.  Hijinks ensue.  It was very funny, my favorite line being, when they are showing wedding rings to the commie, who must be cleaned up in order to be presentable to the boss.  “Gold!” He cries, “I prefer the honest steel of the guns of Stalingrad!”  Two thumbs up!
4. And to think, I still have Saturday and Sunday ahead of me!
5. Hooray!

February 21, 2008

1. Come on Snow, do your thing!
2. I think this site has the best name ever.
3. Good weigh in today, but I immediately followed up with too much food.  Always a risk on Thursdays when the old week of points is over and the new one has not yet begun.  It has made me feel kind of gross, too much food and brownies, and I need to remember how this feels.
4. In the workout we have been doing boxing of late, and we all get far to much pleasure out of the punching.
5. I just finished reading Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster, the precursor to Bright Lights, Big Ass.  It was very entertaining.  Now I am reading her blog which is good too.  Today it has a link to this article, about the need for some sort of a feline surge plan, which also makes for good reading.

February 20, 2008

1. I’m making A CD for AB, for a friend of hers, and mine really, who is pretty ill.  She and her parents wrote out a list of songs and I downloading them on itunes and making a CD.  Here is the thing:  I only have eyes for you, sung by Doris Day is marked “Explict.” What?  Did I miss the album, “Doris Day, The Punk Rap Years,” or her epic “Sit Down and Listen to the Music You Fifties DooWop MoFos!”
2. I need the people in line at Starbucks to pay attention.  When the nice man by the pastry case asks you, “can I get you any pastries,” he wants to know about food.  To respond by giving him your drink order screws up the system.  I worry about the future.  My students are these people, not paying attention and slowing down the line, troubling the nice people who are trying to get us coffee.  I emphasize following directions in my classes, for precisely this reason.
3. I’d like to get through a meeting with the superintendent without some teacher asking him about snow days.  It makes us look bad.  Believe me, I love a snow day as much if not more than the next guy, but we just need to lay off the topic around this guy.
4. Chrissie is the bomb lady, because she already donated to my walk.  The only downside, is now I can’t quit!
5. And snow?  Needs to come.  Right. Now.

February 19, 2008

1. It’s been a long time since I felt like doing absolutely nothing (or didn’t feel like doing anything) in the evening.  Don’t feel like knitting, writing, and definitely not cleaning or doing laundry.  So here I go.  Nothing. Commence.

February 18, 2008

1. I’ve been very careful about what I’ve been eating for the last two weeks, and especially trying to note when I don’t feel good physically after I eat, and try to determine what triggered it.  This is to determine if flour and sugar have the buckling power of kryptonite over me.  I felt pretty gross after eating a cheese sandwich at the simple supper tonight, but it wasn’t the bread I determined.  That sucker was made with Miracle Whip.  O’ Foulest of Condiments get thee from me!  Seriously.  Blech.  Who invented that stuff?
2. We had leftover split pea and then some new potato soup.  New as in made today, not New Potato.”  It was a from a mix and I decided to go get some more to make for soup/salad day at school tomorrow.  Due to some poor restocking at the local Safeway, I found myself struggling to reach the packages that were far back on the top shelf.  I must have looked ridiculous.  A man asked me if he could help me, and I thought it was an employee, but when I turned it was an average shopper.  He reached up and got the packages and handed them to me.  I told him he was the hero of the creamy potato, and he made some friendly comment. Perhaps he was nice, I wouldn’t know.  A small dust cloud filled the space as I fled the scene.
3. I registered to do the Breast Cancer 3 day walk next October.  Now I have to train, and raise $2200.  Just seemed like a good thing to do.

February 17, 2008

1. This has been two days to recharge.  I haven’t felt like doing much.  Quiet weather. Quiet me.
2. I’ve watched Terminator 2. Still great after all these years.  I feel I need to watch the also excellent 1 and the the lesser 3 in order to complete the circle.
3. Now I am settling down with another movie, maybe Muriel’s wedding, maybe Bend It Like Beckham, or maybe Master and Commander.  No idea.  Maybe I’ll try again with the netflix instant watch, though last time the playback was a awful quality.  Like, only hear the soundtrack quality.
4. I’ve also been to Knit Happens, and have a ball of Rowan Big Wool, and the ginormous size 19 needles that I got for free at Stich and Pitch, for which to get a scarf going.
5. Of course I bought other yarn, and got some advice on socks, which I’d like to try.  I told them I wanted to make one sock, and if it worked out, maybe the second.  There is a thing called Second Sock Syndrome, where only one gets made.  Sounds perfect for me.

February 15, 2008

1. Time to grade again.  I’ve got a more organized system, and even the desire to get it done.  but it is still going to take hours.  I don’t know where that time is.  I broke down the hours I work, trying to understand where the time goes.  Of a 37.5 hour week (that’s contract time, I probably average about 8 hours a day.)  anywho, of the 37.5 hours that are there, about 20 go to teaching, 4 1/2 – planning, 2 1/2 meetings, 2 1/2 to town meeting and TA time.  The time that is left is lunch, which I am usually doing some sort of chores during most days, (except Mondays, hooray for salad day!) and in between classes, which are for the bathroom and putting away one set of things and getting out another.  There are no many stretches of time that aren’t interrupted, or longer than 45 minutes to do things.  I don’t see how I can plan and grade in 4 1/2 hours a week.  This grading I do periodically will take  4 or 5 hours, and where is that time?  It just can’t happen in the regular hours, there is too much to do to get ready for the classes.  So that means it needs to be fit in somewhere else, and there is nowhere else except after school.  3 days a week I have commitments right after, so that leaves Monday and Friday.  I know I should stay and grade all this stuff, but I just find it very difficult to summon the wherewithal to stay here late on a Friday.  I am beat!  I need a coffee and a pedicure!  I can take home the tests, but I’d need a tractor trailer for the notebooks.  Maybe I could just take 2 classes home…I do see a box there in the corner.
2. The drawback with taking things home, is that sometimes, they just end up getting a ride in the car, which I am sure the notebooks enjoy, but it doesn’t really get to the heart of the issue.
3. I fear I am shallow. I know just a bit about many things and not enough about everything.  I read a little, I listen to music a little.  I wish I knew much more, so as to engage in better conversation.
4. A pleasant night tonight, out with Paul and AB and Ali.  Now home, drinking a nice Zero (Sprite Zero that is.)  But the Red Zero, she is fading now, and ready for bed.
5. Why is it that the day I strip the bed and wash the sheets is the night I am all tired and hate to contemplate putting them all back on again.  Has happened before.  Have I ever just wrapped up in a blanket and slept right on top of the mattress?  Yes.  Yes I have.